A hospital patient shot himself dead with a pistol on a packed NHS ward yesterday.

The 63-year-old carefully drew the curtain around his bed before pointing the gun at his head and pulling the trigger. Shocked doctors and nurses desperately tried to save him but he died from a single gunshot wound.

The man, who has not been named, shot himself on a busy 28-bed ward in Northampton General Hospital, left.

One distraught hospital worker said: "It's terrible. No one can believe what's happened. He either brought the gun in himself or got someone to bring it in for him."

The six-bed bay in which the shooting happened was immediately evacuated and cordoned off after yesterday morning's shooting. A hospital spokesman said: "There were a lot of other patients on the ward but their view was blocked because the man's bed was curtained at the time.

"Other patients will probably be interviewed as witnesses. We do not know how he came to have the gun on the ward. That is something police are investigating."

The spokesman said the man had been in hospital for several weeks but could not say why he was admitted.

Police said they are not looking for anyone else in connection with the shooting. Andrea Fellem, 28, who works in the hospital's Cliftonville restaurant, said: "We are all shocked. Nothing like this has ever happened before.

"I'm really worried about how he managed to get a gun into the hospital, especially considering we handle cash."